I write, speak, invest, network, and question to stimulate fruitful conversation. Let's talk about human flourishing! It begins with freedom. Holy leisure is the key to human being, freedom and generativity. Please join me in the adventure of realizing Christ!
Living in Plain Sight
Consider the lure of the Ring in Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings. The power of invisibility has its advantages, but does it grant any of the pleasure we associate with habit-forming addictions? As I pondered the attractive menace of the Ring, I realized invisibility is actually a highly-sought pleasure, for ancients and moderns alike.
From the Buddhist’s desire to release all personal boundary and immerse the Self in nothingness, to the Gothic teen masking her vulnerability in studded leather, invisibility, or the yearning for it, seems to drive human behavior past reason – like the false promises of chemical happiness, sexual indulgence, or bloodlust.
Over-exposed, bared, naked, raped and violated souls crave the pleasure of darkness, privacy, anonymity, masquerade, and disembodied virtual existence. Please, please,” they seem to say, “Shield us, veil us, return to us our human dignity and personhood.” But they have difficulty emerging into the ‘danger’ of being real, being free, being visible, from the seeming safety of life in hiding – even as they grow ever less able to inhabit the sphere of encounter with reality.
You must be logged in to post a comment.